Legal Matters

Thursday, 17 March 2005 17:43

A court case against Glaxo, manufacturers of Myodil was successful in 1995.However, this fails to help patients who are only now being diagnosed with arachnoiditis; this comes about for one of two reasons:

There has been a delay in onset of arachnoiditis: this can be up to 20 years after the procedure.

The patient has experienced symptoms for some time but these are only now being recognised as being due to arachnoiditis.(in some cases it appears that information has been witheld from the patient for many years).

The patient has experienced symptoms for some time but these are only now being recognised as being due to arachnoiditis.(in some cases it appears that information has been witheld from the patient for many years)

There are several factors at work here:

1. Lack of awareness of the condition amongst the medical profession2. Lack of a definitive test3. MRI scans may not correlate well with the clinical picture. 4. Doctors' fear of litigation

5. Lack of awareness of the condition amongst the medical profession6. Lack of a definitive test7. MRI scans may not correlate well with the clinical picture. 8. Doctors' fear of litigation

Currently there is a lawyer in Texas who thinks he may be able to bring cases from around the world to federal court in New Jersey.

It is to be hoped that this brings some chance of legal redress to victims whose arachnoiditis only came to light after the Glaxo case was resolved, but whose lives remain blighted by the condition.

They may have lost their job, and thus financial security, their dignity, independence, self-esteem, sometimes even their marriage..the strain of this intractable and intransigent illness can rob people of so many things in their lives.